Partner with Be Loved House for Affordable Housing in Asheville

Asheville is currently over 5,000 units shy of the affordable housing we need for our citizens. Our mission partners at the Be Loved House have asked us to consider signing their petition and/or writing to City Council and Buncombe County Commission in support of mandatory inclusionary zoning. (This policy requires every new development to include a percentage of affordable housing.) Petitions can be found on the campaign Facebook page here or write a letter to the editor in support of ending homelessness by creating more affordable housing.

Festival of Shelters: September 27-October 4

Festival of Shelters | Sunday, Sept 27 - Oct 4 Vance Monument

Join BeLoved Asheville Seminary on the street; Walk in solidarity with our homeless friends.

This ancient Hebrew festival, Sukkot, celebrates the harvest with gratitude and remembers our neighbors who struggle with homelessness as winter approaches. It calls us to resist the lies that separate us from each other. It calls us to resist gentrification and advocate for housing, community, and hope! This will be a time to reduce the distance between us and friends on the street, a time to reflect and pray, a time to resist forces that hurt our homeless friends, and to continue to educate and advocate for solutions to homelessness. For more information, contact Rev. Amy Cantrell, 242-8261.

 

Sunday, September 27 | 5 PM

Light meal, remembrance, prayer, protest

Sunday, September 27 - Monday, September 28 

Overnight street vigil (please call BeLoved to let us know you will be participating overnight)

Monday, September 28 - Sunday, October 4 | 3- 4pm

Street advocacy meet at Vance Monument

 

Link to Support Beloved House

Our friends at Beloved House have started a Go Fund Me drive. See this link if you'd like to donate:
http://www.gofundme.com/homelesslove

Gift-A-Plant Drive!

Be Loved is looking for donations of veggies plants for our neighborhood garden. Can 50 of our friends donate one veggie plant a piece? Plant drop-off at 39 Grove St 28801. Thanks one and all!

Beloved House in the News!

Check out the latest Presbyterian Hunger Project Post newsletter for a write-up about Asheville's own Beloved House!

Thanks, PW!

PW Spiritual Retreat | $320 to Benefit Be Loved House!
Thanks to all the women who attended the Retreat on Saturday, March 21. We collected $320.00 in gift cards for the Be Loved House. Thank you for your generosity!

Food Connection

In partnership with Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church and Asheville Taxi, our mission is collecting surplus food from restaurants and caterers and delivering the food to those who will enjoy it in order to reduce food waste and ease the pain of immediate hunger.

Our first recipient, Amy Cantrell, who runs the Be Loved House said, "Food Connection has made an immense difference already. We have been able to share food with folks who desperately need it and have even been able to divert some funds spent on food in the past into some of our other ministries (especially our laundry ministry for folks on the street)."

Interested in getting involved? Submit an application to become a donor. Contact Flori at 828-275-3520 or flori@localflavoravl.com.

Click HERE to learn more.

Adult Education Opportunity: Amy Cantrell from the BeLoved House

Special Adult Education Offering

Conversation with Amy Cantrell from the Be Loved House

November 16 & 23 |9:15 AM | 

Foyer (area outside Fellowship Hall)

Amy is a missionary in Asheville who has chosen to live in intentional Christian community with friends who are homeless or living in poverty. She and her family live at the margins of society in relationship with those who are vulnerable in our city as they pray and practice Jesus' prayer:  "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."  We will get together with Amy twice in November to hear her story and to learn from her experience in the Be Loved community. Your questions and comments will help to shape the discussion. Our hope is to have an honest, welcoming conversation about a variety of topics centering on Christ's call on our lives.  To learn more about Be Loved, go to belovedasheville.com.

Slam On A Mission To Benefit Be Loved House | Saturday, August 23 | 7 PM

Working with Asheville Youth Mission, Kairos West will be hosting a youth poetry slam as a benefit event for Be Loved House.  The slam will start with a youth poetry open mic, and then will feature Slam Asheville Youth, a nationally known crew of awesome teen poets! Learn more  HERE.

Art Project for Local Charities at Be Loved House | Tuesday, February 4

Art Project for Local Charities at Be Loved House | Tuesday, February 4 | 6p 

Lasagna Dinner with the House followed by an Arts for Life prep party! We need volunteers to provide key menu items as well as helping hands that are good with scissors!

Menu

• 1 meat lasagna
• 1vegetarian lasagna
• bread
• salad
• 1 gallon sweet tea
• 1 gallon unsweet tea
• Dessert

Please call me at 828-639-0365 or email marilyn.zapf@gmail.com if you are interested in joining.

Be Loved House Art Show November 24

Next Sunday, November 24, 6 artists from the Be Loved Community will be at Grace Covenant displaying and selling their art.  From watercolor to jewelry to recycled art, there will be a host of different pieces to see and purchase.  The Be Loved House, a community house in Asheville reaching out to our city's most vulnerable people, has some incredible artists in their community who will be here with their art on Sunday morning.

Dinner, Fellowship, and a Tour of Be Loved House Wednesday, November 6 | 6:30 PM

We will be taking a hot meal, drinks, and dessert to the folks of the Be Loved House, to share a meal with them as we begin to build our relationship and further assess how we can best develop a ministry to support them. Contact Kristy Farber with questions:kfarber@gcpcusa.org.

BeLoved House: Ways to Serve

Grace Covenant has been contacted by the both our partners in homeless ministry and the city's office dealing with homelessness to ask our help with an alarming spike of homeless youth and young adults in Asheville, including a high number of LGBTQ youth.  Our city's homeless shelters are often unequipped and unable to accommodate these youth and young adults for a variety of reasons and, in response, our SERVE Council is working with the city of Asheville and BeLoved House to support these youth.  There are two ways you can get involved:

First, there is a list of items you can donate to the BeLoved House who provides shelter for these youth.  A list is on our website, or in the information station in the narthex. [ http://www.gcpcusa.org/#/calendar-current-events/serve ]

Second, there is a need for a team of adults to be in relationship with the 18-24 year old homeless youth. If you are interesting in learning more, please contact SERVE Council member Leah Madamba (leahmadamba@hotmail.com), who is coordinating this part of our response.